In 2018, I did something no plastic product development engineer should ever do.
Accept full responsibility for the department’s FEA.
A couple of university labs in structural simulation was my entire background.
So naturally, everything was bound to go wrong.
And it did.
The thing is, the colleague I was replacing was highly praised for successfully simulating an impact (a drop test) using Inventor Nastran.
Looking at those results in hindsight, they looked nothing like reality.
Among other things, because the plastic material data was about as realistic as a generic supplier datasheet.
But just getting the solver to converge and making it “look” real basically turned him into a computational mechanics PhD.
In his own eyes, and in the eyes of everyone else.
Look, the guy was genuinely good.
And pulling off that kind of feat with the tools he had deserved a lot of credit (back in 2018, Inventor Nastran didn’t even have an explicit solver).
But the simulation was completely useless.
Well, actually, it was useful for one thing: putting a massive amount of pressure on me.
And forcing me to step up fast.
So here I am, several years later, running structural simulations with complex materials…
And deciding to share what I’ve learned.
Now, let me introduce myself.
My name is Miguel.
I am a structural simulation engineer and an expert in plastic parts.
I was born and still live in Valencia.
I am very, very close to 40.
And I have a son.
A “little guy” who has completely changed my life.
(Even more than that impact simulation from my colleague.)
I am also into sports.
And I love tinkering with AI tools.
But getting back to my point.
I also started out taking training that taught you the exact steps to follow in a specific software.
But it didn’t teach you to think first. Just to check boxes on a list until you hit the “Run” button.
And that only brought me one thing…
problems.
Rework, redesigns, and physical tests that looked nothing like my results.
And everyone losing trust in me.
The industry always demands results for yesterday. But cutting corners doesn’t work.
When you understand that what makes your simulations good are the assumptions you choose to make, everything gets significantly better.
Analyzing what’s in front of you and carefully thinking about how to set up the model saves you massive amounts of time in iterations later.
And prioritizing speed just to spit out results faster only leads to one thing:
screwing it up 80% of the time (if not more).
So, after a lot of trial and error, many screw-ups, and (even more) sleepless nights, I decided to compile all this knowledge and share it to bring you value and save you from going through the same mess I did.
Weekly emails, workshops, tools, and whatever else I come up with along the way.
If you want to avoid rework, redesigns, or project delays caused by not applying your engineering judgment properly, these emails might just help you out.
You can sign up below.